The Moon in Your Eyes
by Dr.MiriamLanning
Summary: After surviving the Promised Day, Mustang and Hawkeye do their best to actually get some rest for once, but a slight scare and an even slighter confession get in the way. Fluff. Royai. One-shot.


**A/N- Just a sweet little end to a victorious but pretty devastating day. I think it's the least they deserve. **

***I do not own either of these characters, but I hope I did them justice.**

With a quiet _click_, the nurse turned out the lights and gently closed the door behind her with another _click_. Riza prepared to have her eyes adjust to the darkness, but it never came. A quick glance to her right revealed the answer- the silvery light of the full moon was streaming through the window, causing the room to be almost as bright as when the lights were on.

A grin tugged at her mouth. Of course this night- of all nights- would have the most beautiful moon she'd ever seen.

Maybe the universe was celebrating their victory. Maybe the sun had decided to shine just a little bit brighter during the day that it was almost devoured. Maybe it was just the fact that she was _alive _when just hours before she had not expected to be made it seem so beautiful. Whatever the reason, she honestly didn't care. It was beautiful, and it made her smile.

A soft sound to her right caused her eyes to snap over and track the noise. Roy was shifting in his sleep, and her smile swelled. It was almost too much that not only had she survived the ordeal, but so had he. To be perfectly honest, it was more the other way around- it was less important that _she_ had survived, and more important that _he _had. Her job was fulfilled and she actually got to live to see it.

Then something happened that caused her smile to fade ever so slightly.

Roy opened his eyes, stared for a moment, and sighed.

All at once the beautiful night made her stomach clench. How could she be sitting there, just a few feet away, marveling at a sight he would never see again?

Riza watched as his fists clenched (as well as they could past the bandages) on top of the sheets next to him. He was restraining himself- probably from screaming.

"It's one in the morning, sir," she informed him quietly. "You should get your rest."

He didn't jump. He didn't even blink. But he did smirk.

"I could say the same to you, Lieutenant," he said just as softly.

"It's not your job to make sure I get my rest, sir, but it _is_ my job to make sure you get yours."

He exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes as he tilted his head back into his pillows. "You always have been exceptionally good at your job."

A comfortable silence fell after that, and Riza wondered if he had fallen asleep. She hoped he had- sleep would come a lot easier to her knowing that he was resting. Lord knows he needed it.

Then, he inhaled.

"Tell me, Lieutenant," he began casually. "Is the moon out tonight?"

That simple question broke Riza's heart. That was all it took. His voice had gone soft toward the end, and after the day she'd had, she felt tears spring into her eyes. She swallowed hard, and fought to keep her voice level.

"Yes, sir, it is."

"Is it a full moon?"

"Yes. Beautiful, sir."

He smiled. "I could almost feel it on my skin, and it looks like I was right. Funny how a person's remaining senses step in to cover for the one that's gone."

He wasn't doing it on purpose- in fact, he probably didn't realize that each word was stabbing her in the chest. Oh, how she wished it was _her _that had lost her sight instead of him. He had too much to do, too many plans not yet finished, too many dreams that had yet to be realized and now…

But she wasn't a fool. She knew him better than she knew anyone on the planet and she wasn't going to sit there and cry about a lost future, because she knew he wouldn't. There was no way in hell he was giving up, especially not after surviving what he had. It wasn't not like it was all over. He was still going to one day become Fuhrer and change the world. Of that she was certain.

She had just _really_ hoped that maybe he would get some sort of a break for once.

"The human body is incredible, sir," she replied, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut when her voice came out much weaker than she'd meant it to be. She was losing her grip.

When she opened them she found Roy's eyes staring in her direction, cracking her resolve even further but not because of pity. Something so warm and gentle was pouring out of them and straight into her heart that she suddenly felt like she was floating.

"I'm going to be fine, Lieutenant. "

Tears stung her eyes- she had no defense against anything he said now, especially wrapped in that tender tone. It was the one that had made its first appearance only hours ago when his hand covered hers and gently lowered her pistol. _I can't afford to lose you. _Then it materialized again, even more potently, when he scooped her up and held her close in the crumbling cavern beneath Central Command. When she'd felt his heartbeat against her cheek and his arms around her and his breath fluttering through her hair and she was quite frankly content with dying right there.

But of course, her orders were to stay alive, and she was never one to disobey direct orders.

"I know, sir."

He huffed a laugh and looked up toward the ceiling. "Still with the '_sir._'"

She felt herself grinning. "One of us has to remain professional."

She hoped he didn't notice the fact that she neglected to use his title that time.

"True," he admitted. "But it does make for terrible bedside manners."

"Bedside manners aren't in my job description, sir."

"Not yet," he muttered, and even without looking at him she could hear the grin in his voice.

Silence fell again, only interrupted by the sound of a breeze whispering through the trees in the courtyard below. Riza relaxed just a little knowing that none of those breezes would ever again hold the whispers of someone lurking in the shadows. She would never again have to search every shadow for a glimpse of a red-irised eye or a pale boy, though she knew that she would for awhile simply out of habit. But not tonight. Tonight might be the first night in months that she'd actually get decent sleep.

Then, every hair on her body stood on end as she heard the distinct sound of a twig snapping right below their window.

Without thinking, she was silently on her feet, pistol in hand, slowly making her way to the window. The sound of Roy sitting up in bed behind her registered like a flare in her mind.

"Stay in bed, Colonel," she ordered quietly, not taking her eyes off the window, her heart pounding in her ears. Was one of those infernal creatures still wandering around? Were one of the Homunculi still alive and they had somehow missed it? Or was a misguided Central soldier trying to take revenge for his fallen leader? A thousand gut-wrenching possibilities ricochetted around her mind, and every single one of them was justified.

But none of them were going to take Roy from her. Not tonight.

Speaking of Roy…

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

His voice was low but on edge, and heard the gentle slap of his feet hitting the floor. She sighed inwardly and moved a little faster. _So stubborn._

"Stay back, sir."

The edge of the window was in view, slowly revealing the glittering cityscape beyond it, and the tops of the trees right next to it. The snapping sound had definitely come from the ground, and she didn't hear any tell-tale sounds of someone scrabbling up the tree. Deciding to use its foliage as cover, she shifted to the left side of the window and pressed herself against the wall. Slowly she peered around the edge, the courtyard inching into view as she drew her gun up to take aim at what was waiting at the bottom...

Another snap, and she threw her arms out the window to blow the mother-loving face off of-

A… cat.

A cat was slinking across the courtyard with a mouse in its jaws, heedless of the dry twigs beneath its paws in its haste to hurry home with its prey. She glanced around again, making sure that the cat was not a diversion or timely distraction, and found no one in the courtyard. Not a soul. The moonlight spilling into it illuminated every corner and cranny, and she retracted her pistol and sagged against the wall.

"It was a cat, sir."

Her shoulder and neck both throbbed painfully as if competing for her attention, and she couldn't fight the grimace on her face. She looked up hurriedly to see if he had noticed, and then checked herself. She could make all the faces she wanted now and he'd never know.

Well, part of her suspected that he would still _somehow_ know, so she reigned in her expression anyway.

Roy had made it half-way across the room, and had managed to get one of his gloves mostly on despite his bandages- enough to create a spark if necessary. His other hand was lightly touching the rail of the empty bed beside his, keeping him rooted.

"A cat?" he repeated, his eyes wide and rapidly filling with relief.

"A cat," she confirmed, pushing herself off the wall and striding back across the room, doing her best to ignore the pain spreading prickly heat through her left side. "It would appear we are a bit jumpy, sir."

His shoulders relaxed and he chuckled. "I can't imagine why."

Riza frowned at how his glove had caught on the gauze holding his hand together.

"You shouldn't wear those on top of your bandages- you'll injure yourself further." She stepped forward and without thinking took his hand. The glove had pushed the bandage back but hadn't exposed the wound beneath it. His skin peeked out from between the glove and his bandages, the faint lines of his past carved transmutation circle just visible on the back of his hand. A shiver ran down her spine. That was the first time she thought she'd lost him.

"And you shouldn't be straining your neck and shoulder by taking aim out a window," he shot back just as firmly. She glanced up and found that his grayed eyes were somehow meeting hers and her suspicion that he could still read her strengthened. She avoided them by looking down to gently remove his glove and readjust his bandages. His hand was warm, but not as warm as one would think the Flame Alchemist's would be. Up close and un-gloved, they appeared to be just normal hands, but that was the magic of them. Amazing and terrible things could come from the most ordinary of places.

Her fingers slid up to gently tug the gauze back into place. All at once the image of Bradley's swords slicing through his palms and pinning him to the ground flashed in her mind and she winced. That was the second time.

"I couldn't let anything happen to you again, sir," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes for the second time that night.

He paused for a moment. "Again?"

She couldn't bear to put it into words, so she ran her finger lightly over what his bandage obscured, knowing he'd understand. "Again."

He paused for a moment, and she could feel his eyes searching her in vain. Then he sighed and took her hand in both of his injured ones. He was even gentler with her than she was with him. "Don't you dare blame yourself for that-"

"How can I not?" she said suddenly, her voice breaking. Of all the terrible things she'd witnessed, of all the horrifying images that were etched into her mind forever, none of them could compare to the sight of Roy writhing on the ground under Bradley's boot, his palms clenching and unclenching around the metal stabbing through them as the blinding blue of the circle turned his blood a sickening gold. "I watched it happen, I just sat there, and I couldn't do anything, all I could do was _watch_-"

"And how do you think I felt?"

His voice cut hers off like the very blade she had been recalling and she jumped. His hands skittered up from her hand to grip her shoulders, and she winced for his wounds, but there wasn't a trace of pain on his face.

Well, not due to his hands.

His face had gone slightly pale and was twisted. She'd only seen his face like that once before and she would have reprimanded herself for allowing him to become so distraught again if her heart wasn't pounding hard enough to make her head swirl.

"How do you think I felt when that monster slashed your neck and let you drop to the ground and could do _nothing_ but watch your blood spread around you?" he whispered, but he may as well have been shouting. His voice was low and rough, and each of his words came out like a strike. "How do you think I felt to just stand there, unable to fight, unable to stop it, completely useless and powerless as they took the one thing that I cared for most right in front of my eyes?"

Her breath caught in her throat.

He finally said it.

After all this time, he'd finally said it.

His fingers squeezed her shoulders gently, as if responding to the soft sound of her gasp. Perhaps he hadn't meant to say that, but she found no trace of shock or regret on his face. He'd meant perfectly well to say what he said, and that squeeze told her everything she needed to know.

And who knows, maybe he'd felt her completely melt at his words.

"I… that was the worst moment of my life, Hawkeye," he said, shaking his head. "Please don't make it worse by trying to put even a shred of the blame on yourself."

She stared at him, her eyes wide and her breathing stopped. Her mind whirled with what she wanted to do- what she wanted _so _desperately to do. She could feel her fingers tingling, begging to touch him and pull him close and let him know how much she cared and reciprocated his feelings without a clumsy confession of words. His face was so close to hers, just inches away, and it would only be a matter of leaning in-

Riza clenched her hands into fists.

No. She couldn't sabotage everything he had worked for- everything _they _had worked for. Not after all they'd been through. Not after the fact that they both survived.

She exhaled a thin stream of air out of her nose and took the smallest of steps backward. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could faintly hear her body screaming.

"Understood, sir."

Her words tasted as cold as they sounded, and she was relieved that he couldn't see the pain on her face. He would never know what an immense emotional entity she had just wrestled to the ground.

An expression of relief and disappointment flitted across his face, no doubt pleased by her acquiesce but unhappy at her distancing him. She literally watched him think, _well, at least she agreed with me._ His hands slowly fell from her shoulders and he took a step back toward his bed.

"We should probably rest up now," he said, doing his best to brush the moment aside. "I'm going to need all of my energy for whatever Dr. Marcoh has for us tomorrow."

A small grin pulled at her lips. "So you finally agree with me, sir."

He shook his head with a laugh and began turning toward his bed. "Just this once, Hawkeye."

Like someone clenched her heart, a jolt of pain sizzled through her as his eyes left hers and his body heat began to leave her skin. Her body was moving before she could stop it and her mouth was opening before she knew what was coming out of it.

"Sir?"

He turned, a little hum resonating in his chest, but it was rendered silent by the soft but swift pressure of her lips on his cheek.

"Good night, Colonel."

She didn't stay long enough to see the expression on his face before she all but ran back to her own bed and clambered under the covers. She knew both of them well enough to know that the amount of time in which she put a safe distance between them was crucial.

He paused at his bedside, his back to her, and after a moment he sat down on his bed, slid in between his sheets, and settled in again.

"Good night, Lieutenant."


End file.
